Diversion Part 2

We are still in diversion mode. No politics. No talking heads. So we've been working in the garden. Harvested the last of the string beans, blanched them and froze five good-sized bags. Roger transplanted the datil peppers into pots for the winter (thanks to FloridaCracker for that great idea). We're still hoping for a good crop next year. We brought our potted tomatoes and basil inside, all lined up in front of our south-facing windows. We've got a good winter crop in the outside garden as well.
We've been taking good long walks. It's been an amazing year for fall foliage. The colors are richer than I remember from our previous two falls here. It's as pretty as the autumns of my youth. We've been seeing birds that we have not seen before. There's a Northern Harrier that seems to have taken up residence on our Larry Scott Memorial Trail. It hunts differently from the other raptors we've seen. It flies low to the ground over the grasses and bushes looking for its prey. We also saw our first Pileated Woodpecker (I submitted the photo to Pam at Tortoise Trail for her Good Planets next Saturday), and we think we saw a Peregrine Falcon Sunday morning.
Sunday afternoon we had a nice little downpour. The wind kicked up and we even had some hail. The sky changed so quickly all afternoon, it was hard not to run outside with the camera every five minutes to catch the clouds, the light, the shifting shadows.

The hawk paid us a visit after the rain. He likes to dry his feathers while he stands on the birdfeeder. I remembered to video him as he hopped from one perch to another, drying and hunting.

If you'd like to watch the hawk fly, here's a link to a Windows Media Player file and one to a Quicktime file. They're both compressed, but I still think you get an idea of this bird's elegance.

Okay, even though we really are avoiding politics, we thought maybe some of you are strong enough to take up the fight. We received an email from moveon.org asking if we would run this ad. Of course we'll run it. If just one person reading this takes up the charge and makes these calls, we can begin to change the world.